Unspoken
by colorguard28
Summary: After returning from Mexico, Tim realizes there are too many things left unsaid. One-shot. Hints of McAbby, Borderland spoilers. This is NOT in the Breathe universe. 2010 NCIS Award winner tie for Best McGee/Abby - Other.


_**AN:**__ I watched Cloak earlier tonight and one of Tim's lines clicked with everything in Borderland and this story was born. It's labeled complete for now, but there might be an addition to it depending on how the next two eps play out. Just a quick one-shot look at what Tim might have been thinking during all those thoughtful looks in the episode. For the Razor's Edge readers, this is obviously not in that universe. If it were, I'd be tagging off the observation scene between Tim and Tony. :) _

**

* * *

Unspoken**

Tim McGee sat at his desk, fingers pounding the metal keys of his ancient typewriter. It had been almost a year since the last time he sat down to write, back before Tony killed Rivken and Ziva stayed in Somalia. At first, he was just too busy as they tried to solve case after case while down by an agent. Then they were off to Somalia. And since they had returned, the words wouldn't come.

The peril of basing your fictional characters on real people was that when things changed in life, it was tough to keep the characters from changing with them. Ziva was back, but nothing was the same. She and Tony couldn't seem to find their old rhythm. He and Tony worked together better than ever. They didn't share a brain the way he and Abby sometimes seemed to, but there were times they came close.

He sighed and thought of Abby. The one person he'd been trying not to think about. They had been dancing around each other for a while. First one would make a move, and the other would brush it off. Then they would reverse positions, never quite in sync.

Take this trip to Mexico. Tim was jealous of Alejandro, and Abby seemed to enjoy the Mexican official's attention. Tim was willing to let it go, wait for a better time. Then the drug cartel showed up at the cold case scene and threatened them.

Tim did the only thing he could do and still live with himself: He stepped forward and offered his life in exchange for Abby's. Sure, he said it was as a hostage. Unspoken was the understanding that the cartel didn't take hostages. They took victims. If they had taken him, he would be dead. But if they had taken Abby and killed her, he would be dead as well. Maybe not in body, but in spirit. He'd always wondered if the reason she wouldn't get serious when they were together was because she was afraid of losing him to an early death — an explosion or a bullet. Even though they hadn't been together in years, there was always the unspoken understanding that someday, maybe, they would have the courage to try again.

They had left him alive. But when the woman tossed the bullet to Abby, Tim wondered if that was another type of explosion. Silent, yet far deadlier to all of them. Abby hadn't said anything about it. She hadn't mentioned that the drug dealer was killed just months after Shannon and Kelly died, just weeks after Gibbs returned from Kuwait. She hadn't mentioned that he was shot by a sniper who used Lapuas. She hadn't mentioned that Gibbs made an equally difficult shot this summer in Somalia with eyes 20 years older and without the daily practice he'd undoubtedly had when it was his job. She hadn't mentioned that Gibbs told them exactly what kind of rifle and ammunition he used as a sniper back when Ari shot Kate using the same weapon and bullets.

He hadn't mentioned he remembered this. He hadn't mentioned Gibbs' reaction to his defense of Sarah when she was under suspicion for murder, his understanding of Tim's need to protect his own family. He hadn't mentioned what he said to Abby during the mole hunt when he thought she was suspected. He hadn't mentioned those words: "Abby, you could never betray Gibbs."

In the lab today, she hadn't said anything to Gibbs about the cold case when he brought the bullet up from Ducky. He could feel the unspoken words between her and Gibbs as he talked about their current case, any noise to fill the uncomfortable silence. He knew he had to say something. And he couldn't say anything.

Because as long as everything they knew was unspoken, it was just a theory. Because once they said the words, they couldn't take them back.


End file.
